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Quick Update July 24, 2008

Posted by tritimkc in : General , 1 comment so far

Training has been good the last couple weeks. More consistant anyway and the soleous seems to be holding up. Although it has been a bit stiff the last couple of days. I had a massage on Monday evening and I wonder if that aggrivated the thing a bit. So I’ve been trying to increase my turnover and that seems to help.

Recent Workout Notes…

First really tough long ride last Saturday with coach Greg from cycling class. He tried to kill me I think! LOL! Took me up over a couple long step hills which several miles later had my hammies cramping up. It was also very hot and humid. Thus the trip to Stacy for a massage.

Met the open water gang at the Lakewood beach for a good open water swim Sunday morning and swam about 45 minutes. They all left for a long ride afterwards (some 50, some 85 miles). I headed out for a run. Planned 8, bailed at 5. Too hot and my legs too trashed from the ride the day before. Hey, I’m not training for an Ironman so I figured why abuse myself too much! haha

This week more of the same training plan. Tuesday noon swim, evening run. Wednesday 12 mile/2 mile brick. All of which went great. Nothing really too exciting to tell. Other than they are finally repaving Lake Drive and Lakewood Blvd.

*** Jeff and Melissa did you read that?!?! Yeah new pavement!***

Both streets have been terrible for the past couple years so this is a good thing!

July 11, 2008

Posted by tritimkc in : General , 2 comments

Friday July 11, 2008

The calf seems to be holding up so I may actually be able to get some consistant training in and perhaps a race or two before the end of the season. Targets now are Jackson County tri in late August at Longview Lake and the Redman Half in Oklahoma in September.

I’ve jumped into week 12 of last years Ironman training plan and going to follow it through week 22 which brings me right up to Redman. I may hold off on the higher intensity running until August as that’s what seemed to cause all this calf/soleous issue in the first place.

Man I forgot how much effort was involved in a full week of actual training. I’ve been really feeling fatigued all week. Sleep however has been much better. And my mental outlook has improved with actually following a plan and having a goal to work towards again.

It was strange how easy it was to roll out of bed at 5:30 this morning for my 5 mile run. The legs were very heavy and the first couple miles were a struggle but once I settled in I felt a bit better by the end.

I’m testing out a new training log as well. It’s on beginnertriathlete.com. Jared told me about it. I like the look of it and it’s pretty good. It’s here… http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/index-weekly.asp?memberid=107368&year=&month=&day=

Back to Training? June 26, 2008

Posted by tritimkc in : Running , 2 comments

Getting back into the training for a race mode now that the soleous/achilles seems to be better.

Wednesday at noon I hit the pool at 24hr for a quick 2000m swim. 4 x 500m with 15 second rest intervals. Considering I had not been in the pool for over a week I actually felt pretty decent.

Wednesday night I got out for a ride. 18 miles around the Lakewood Loop (3 laps). Good ride. Got to try out the new Bell Sweep helmet and really like this one. Tried one of those high end Specialized Sworks helmets but hated it. Just felt like it caught every bit of air it could and was terrible aero wise. And when you spend almost $200 bucks you don’t want to feel slow! Thankfully Todd and Curt at The Bike Stop let me exchange it for a different one.

*** Ride Bonus - Found a $3.00 Pro-V golf ball in the road next to LOGC #2 :) ***

This morning I dragged my sorry butt out of bed at 5:30am to get in another 4 mile run. We are moving the oldest daughter back to Sprinfield, MO this weekend and will be packing up tonight. So won’t have time for a run after work today. I’m still a bit concerned about the calf flaring up so I concentrated on a quicker turnover and using less toe off and more quads and hammies to move along.

It was a great morning to run. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy these early runs. Nice and humid! Seems the calf is much better now but my overall run conditioning needs some work. Just going to try to get in 3 short runs a week for the next couple weeks and see how things go.

Finally Running June 25, 2008

Posted by tritimkc in : Running , 2 comments

Finally running again after almost a month off because of a strained soleous. At least that’s my self diagnosis anyway. Started in May while running mile repeats… Too fast, too many, too soon.

So took basically the last 3 weeks off. I had tried twice to run with both times ending in a painful walk back home. After the last attempt I’ve let it rest for 11 days with only cycling and a couple 60 minute sessions on the eliptical at 24hr.

Seems to have healed enough now to give it a try so I got out last night for a short 4 miles. I told Kelsey as I was leaving, “if I’m not back in 40 minutes I hurt it again”. Luckily it didn’t flare up and I was able to complete the run.

A little slow at 8:32 pace and a bit of a high average heart rate at 155 but at least there was no pain. Also felt a bit heavy and sluggish even though I haven’t gained any weight from the layoff.

Hoping to stay injury free and at least participate in the Shawnee Mission tri coming up July 13th. We shall see…

Too Fast Too Much Too Soon June 6, 2008

Posted by tritimkc in : General , 3 comments

Friday June 6, 2008

Well I’m officially on injured reserve. Seems I haven’t been following my own advise on training and developed some problems with my right achilles tendon. I’m hoping it’s just some tendonitis and will heal within a couple weeks.

Really sucks too because my running was coming along nicely and the Hospital Hill half marathon is tomorrow (Saturday). This all flared up about 2-1/2 weeks ago on the track after I got back from Pasadena. After the 3rd mile repeat my achilles was a bit sore. But being stupid, I ran one more repeat then a cool down mile.

Iced it when I got home and all was good for a couple days until I ran again. An easy 6 miles with the last 2 or 3 a bit painful but not to the point of stopping me. The next Tuesday repeat night all was good again until the cool down mile and same thing. Just a bit of soreness again. Took the rest of the week off and got out for a short run last Saturday. After about 1-1/2 miles the pain was so bad it stopped me in my tracks.

I walked a bit and tried to run again a couple times but it was too painful so I walked the last 2-1/2 miles home. Thought a massage would help so got in Monday night for one and it helped a great deal felt really good just walking around the next couple days. By Wednesday I decided to get out for a short ride and see how if felt and it was all good.

Thursday night tested it running. Felt stiff but bearable for the first mile. Then at nearly the same point as Saturday, whammo, pain city. This time I turned around right there and walked it back home.

Major suckage for sure as I’m not on the no running for at least a week plan. Hopefully it will heal in time for the Shawnee Mission triathlon mid July. The lesson here it to monitor the miles and just because we can run hard, maybe we should back it off just a hair!

I’m already missing one of my favorite local races. I don’t want to miss the next one too!

Getting Caught Up May 21, 2008

Posted by tritimkc in : General , 3 comments

Okay, gotta get this blog caught up. Out of town last week on biz and not much time since I’ve returned to the office to post some updates on the last few workouts.

Spent the end of last week in Pasadena doing network stuff for our branch office there. But before I left I checked with Kylie to see where any good running spots would be. She pointed me to the area around the Rose Bowl which was only a couple miles from where I was staying. This worked out great and what an awesome place to run. Hundreds of people running, cycling, walking, etc. It was a totally cool place to run.

Turned out to be a good 5.6 mile loop per the Garmin from the hotel, down around the Rose Bowl and back. Did this loop Wednesday night and again Friday morning. Felt good Friday, but Wednesday night I had some pretty sore hammies from Tuesdays track workout.

Even got to meet Kylie and Mike for dinner Thursday night. It was fun to finally meet some Trifueler’s that I’d been talking to online for a couple years. Thanks guys!

Back to KC on Friday night and then slept in a bit Saturday and got some honey-do’s done Saturday. Sunday headed to the little blue trace trail and got in a nice long 14 miles. Perfect day with lots of sun and only about 75 degrees.

Monday took the day off and played 9 holes of golf that evening.

Tuesday I really needed to get back in the pool after being gone last week. Surprised that I really didn’t feel all that bad after a week plus off from swimming. Had a meeting after lunch so had to keep it short at 1600m.

Tuesday night was back at the track for some mile repeats again. Four this time at around 6:30 pace. Felt a bit fresher doing them this time and maybe seeing some signs of improvement.

Well that pretty much covers it.

Tuesday Night Mile Repeats May 7, 2008

Posted by tritimkc in : Running , 1 comment so far

Tuesday May 6, 2008

Back to the track Tuesday night for mile repeats. Four required this week. Not sure how they would go after being stuck on the hotel treadmill for a couple runs last week. I also adjusted my pace a bit after the Trolley Run to fall more inline with what Jack Daniels formula says my threshold runs should be run at.

Based on my 6:29 pace at the Trolley, this puts me at a VDOT of 49. Following the VDOT table then my mile repeat pace should be 6:55. Previous track work has been run closer to 6:30 and the first repeat at 6:55 felt too easy. So I tried to keep it under 6:45 for the last three.

1 mile warmup: 8:50
Repeat 1: 6:59; avg hr 160, max hr 167 (lap recovery)
Repeat 2: 6:44; avg hr 170, max hr 174 (lap recovery)
Repeat 3: 6:38; avg hr 173, max hr 179 (lap recovery)
Repeat 4: 6:37; avg hr 176, max hr 183 (lap recovery)
1 mile cool down; 8:30

Total workout: 7.16 miles; 56:33 (7:53/mi); avg hr 157; max hr 183
 

Traveling Treadmill Run May 1, 2008

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Thursday May 1st, 2008

In Nashville the next couple days at a conference and staying at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. What a massive and cool place. But I was a bit disappointed with the fitness center. Got down there about 6:00am and all of the 15 treadmills they had were taken. Fortunatley as I started to settle for an exercise bike a woman stepped off one of the treadmills and I jumped on before someone else.

I think maybe she couldn’t figure out how to get it going and was why she left it. Snooze ya lose I say so I took it. However each machine had a built in 30 minute limit so I just ran for 30 minutes. I was lucky just to get that in as there was basically a line of people waiting for someone to step off a machine.

Finished my 30 then did some leg extentions and leg presses on some machines. Sooooo short quick workout but better than nothing.

2008 Trolley Run April 28, 2008

Posted by tritimkc in : Racing , 2 comments

Monday April 28th, 2008

Yes I’m still around… Alive and well…

Haven’t posted here in quite some time but figure now is as good of time as any to start back up the blog. Guess I lost some motivation once Ironman Wisconsin was done. We still did our winter KMA (kick my anerobic) cycling class again this year. However work has been so busy that I didn’t have time to post any of the workouts. But rest assured it was just as brutal as the last two years and I feel even stronger going into this Spring and Summer.

No real strick race plans for this season. Figured if I’m to do one or even (gulp) two Ironman races in 09 I need to just go with the flow this year and not follow any kind of rigid training plan so mentally I’m ready next year. There are several local events that I’ll do just to do and maybe try for a couple PR’s or two.

Started off pretty well yesterday with the 20th annual Sabetes Eye Center Trolley Run. This is a really fun race each year. It’s short, flat (almost downhill) and fast. I’d been doing mile repeats the last 4 weeks to get ready for faster running. As opposed to all the long slow stuff last year. And while I don’t feel like I’m in as good of running condition as last year I was still able to pull of a PR. The goal was 6:30 pace and get under 26 minutes which I did coming in at 25:53.

Race Stats: 4 miles, 25:53 (6:29pace), avg HR 174, max HR 189 OUCH!

Okay cool. We’ve got the blog fired back up again.

I feel better now… Don’t you! :)

Marathon, Crazy… October 21, 2007

Posted by tritimkc in : Racing , 1 comment so far

Not nearly enough running miles in the legs between Ironman Wisconsin and the KC marathon. Matter of fact I hadn’t even decided to run KC until this past Thursday. I had hoped that my left over endurance from a summer of training would get me by. But it could be that I wasn’t fully recovered enough to run my best marathon. Either way I met up with Bill, Brian and Fritz at the start line to see what I could do.

All three of my friends were primed and ready having trained well all summer. I on the other hand wasn’t sure exaclty how things would go. Feeling good in the early miles I decided to stay with Brian and Fritz while Bill surged on ahead. Through the first several miles we maintained a sub 8 minute pace. My heart rate was high, in the mid to upper 160’s, and I considered dropping back to get into a lower zone.

After about 5 minutes of recovering back to around 157, I figure what the hell, let’s push it back to sub 8’s and run with Brian and Fritz as long as I could. I was able to do this until about 12 miles when my hip flexors started to really tighten up. Brian surged ahead and we were about 50 yards ahead of Fritz at that time. By the half way timing mat I was really starting to feel some pain in the both hip flexors and decided to really back off. Average pace at the halfway mark was 7:53. Way, way faster then I should have gone out.

From there until about mile 20 I just got tighter and tighter. Every step was painful. Funny how just one year earlier I was really feeling great at the 20 mile mark and flew through the last 6.2 to the finish. This year I would be lucky to be able to run the last 10k at all. I’m sorry to say I did walk quite a bit that last 6 miles and got passed by a lot of runners who ran a much smarter race than I did.

Inside that last mile Dave Schultz caught up to me. He’d finished Wisconsin this year after leaving the Ironman in an ambulance in 06 suffering from hyponatremia. He made the comment that he thought this year the KC marathon was harder than the Ironman marathon. And I had to agree! We crossed the line together and I thanked him for pulling me in the last mile.

It was still a lot of fun as I saw several other triathlets that I see every year, like Dave. And Bill, Brian and Fritz all did great and all three finished in under 3:30.

I can only wonder how it would have gone if I’d run my own race and not pushed it so hard in the first half considering my level of readiness. Oh well another marathon finish and another marathon medal for the rack.